Back to school haikus
Day two, let’s do this!Uh oh, the teen’s not awakePoke her, run away ***School supplies, all bought!Except for a white folderWhich does not exist ***Special fun breakfast!Put your clothes on first,...
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On the readjustment period
Our dog, Maisie, is six-years-old and a very good girl, although if I could pinpoint one issue, it would be a general sense of anxiety. And you can’t blame her. Part hound, part collie, part a bunch of...
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My COVID diary: some initial thoughts
Tuesday, 7:23 a.m. - There’s a conversation that all of us have had some version of, and it concerns the getting and spreading of COVID, and how or why we have or have not yet contracted it. We are...
View ArticleThings I like: down and out edition
My recent bout with “the ivy,” as 5-year-old Aidy called COVID (“the virus”) when we were first in its initial, 2020 grips, provided me some serious downtime to watch TV, read, scroll on my phone…and...
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Self Care-Related New Year's Resolutions that may or may not be realized
Don’t answer people who are desperately calling out your name as though it is an emergency (it is not) while you are in the bathroomDon’t answer people when they tell you to “look at this” when you...
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8, 11, 14, 45
Our family often plays the game 20 questions while we are having dinner. Several months back the children created a new rule: “no feelings.” Not, as you might imagine, that the players are forbidden...
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growth vs. fixed
Piggybacking off my last post, I’ve started thinking recently about various activities, and the way they make me feel; or, conversely, which activities and thoughts I tend to gravitate towards when I’m...
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April, 2023
When my children were very little, I used to take the long way home from dinners out with friends, postponing the inevitable return to whatever awaited me. I wasn’t an unhappy mom - far from it - but...
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Rhapsody on a Diet Coke
I was in between activities the other afternoon, which is the usual these days. I had dropped Aidy off at soccer practice on the wide, green fields behind the middle school and done a quick round of...
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Summer goals 2023
We are going to Ireland this summer. We are going to Ireland to attend one of J’s closest friend’s weddings, and we will be traveling around the country with his college crew and their families, some...
View ArticleSchool's out for summer haikus
Teachers, you are saintsI can’t express it in wordsHere’s this potted plant Missed the camp deadline!No big deal, we’ll muddle through!Feel good about this! 😐Now we are working While also watching our...
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Upon not procuring Taylor Swift tickets for my 14-year-old daughter
Dear Nora, We have passed a crucial threshold, one I knew was coming and pretended was not. You are away for much of the remainder of the summer and Taylor Swift will end her US tour on August 9, not...
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Bit of a situation
We are midsummer. High sun, abundant thunderstorms, reaching 5 million hours of pool time. Yesterday Gabe told me he wanted to know what the plan was for the day and I pointed to the rocky coast of...
View Articleback to school to-dos
pick out outfits for the first day of school! (do not, under any circumstances, be lulled into a false sense of security that, because you have been “doing this back to school thing for awhile” anyone...
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This country, these people
During our recent trip to Ireland, there was one afternoon-into-evening in the town of Dingle that stood out to me because it was such a great example of a sort of everyday kismet that marked our time...
View ArticleOur coffee transitional period
I have told many people that, despite it not being in our best interests logistically speaking, J and I almost always drink a cup of coffee in bed before starting our day. Before telling our children...
View ArticleHome and away
“Travel,” my mother said to me recently over the phone, “is really one of the most important things.” I was standing, as I so often am these days, on the sidelines of a soccer field. Gabe’s team was...
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Sicily! (so far! and on a slight delay!)
October 26 - JFK-Rome-CataniaIt is obviously easier in some ways to travel solo. One thing I didn’t anticipate is how much fun I’d have observing people, with all this energy and attention to spare....
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Along the sea and the (very old) alleyways
November 1 - Yesterday we walked around Mazara Del Vallo, the closest point in Sicily to Africa, which includes a casbah section and the “Casa Tunisa.” We started at the ocean then visited a large...
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Paradise (for bugs and also me)
The agriturismo in Menfi was heaven; it was what I pictured when I pictured a vacation in Sicily. I sat one morning, just after getting up, with a double espresso on the terrace overlooking the...
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